District 1 trustee race not a love fest

The battle lines have been drawn again on Fort Worth's north side. There's muscle coming across from the south side; kids are involved, and thousands of lives and millions of dollars are at stake.

It's not a gang battle over turf or drugs, and I don't think that anyone will die because of it. It doesn't mean, however, that a few people won't get bloodied, politically, in the latest round of "Latino Politics," all in the name of education.

Stereotypical comparison? Perhaps. In another sense, however, the commonalities between gangs and politics are influence, control and protecting your territory.

In the District 1 race for the Fort Worth school board, Camille Rodríguez, a product of Fort Worth schools, podiatrist by profession and first-term incumbent, is being challenged by first-time contender Carlos Vásquez, a former Fort Worth schools teacher and administrator who holds a doctorate.

As I've written before, the tactics that Latinos employ in election campaigns may be no different from those of other ethnic groups. A movement away from the patrón, or godfather-like, system that once ruled Latino politics is good -- it speaks to the social and political evolution of the group and to the fact that Latinos are not homogenous and don't necessarily always have to get along.

But the nastiness and backroom politics have resurfaced in this campaign and, unfortunately, the children in the Fort Worth schools -- specifically Hispanic children -- again are the pawns.

Four years ago, Rodríguez handily defeated longtime District 1 Trustee Rose Herrera with help from the business community, family, friends and several people from downtown and the south side. This go-around, Rodriguez is counting on the same profile for help.

Herrera, several of her predecessors and three former north-side City Council members, along with numerous teachers, are backing Vásquez.

Councilman Sal Espino is remaining neutral. His wife, however, has contributed to Vásquez's campaign; his namesake son has blogged against Rodríguez; and the councilman's brother, Manuel, is running Vásquez's campaign.

Rodríguez's critics say she is invisible or inaccessible in the north-side school community and to parents, and not vocal enough at board meetings.

Rodríguez and many of her supporters counter that there have always been factions in the community upset about her victory -- those who want to return to the days of political patronage and are manufacturing and manipulating data in an attempt to discredit her.

"My focus is the children of this city and of District 1, and if people disagree with some of the things I say and feel that they need to give me political payback, then so be it. I'm still not going to change," Rodríguez said in an interview late last week.

"I'm not going to satisfy everybody," she said. "As long as I can look at myself in the mirror and my family and friends and people who embrace what I am doing, then what other career politicians who are not supporting me -- it's not my concern."

At the center of most of the debate is a discrepancy with Hispanic dropout numbers on the north side. Rodríguez quotes one set of numbers; Vásquez has a different set.

Each makes the case for their statistics, but the reality is that the high Hispanic dropout rate, which is not exclusive to Fort Worth schools, remains unacceptable.

Rodríguez talks about the success of programs already in place to help alleviate the dropout problem and wants to continue them. Vásquez says he's looking outside the box and would push for new programs to also address the issue via early intervention and cognitive programs and to deal with social and financial issues, such as poverty, that influence the dropout rate.

Vásquez says he's not free from political attacks. He said he has been labeled as someone who left the district on bad terms but countered that he actually left because he wanted to go into consultancy work and will begin teaching at Texas Wesleyan University next fall. He attributes the political criticism to his direct approach and to the fear of an unknown candidate.

"I'm very vocal. I'm very direct," he said. "I analyze data, and I'm not going to beat around the bush. People don't want other people holding them accountable, and they know that if I'm on the board that I'm going to ask, 'How is this going to affect our students?'"

But both the nuances and the realities that Vásquez has learned in Latino-style politics are not necessarily found in course materials.

"I've learned so much about politics from this campaign -- some positive, some negative," Vásquez said. "I've learned that I'm not able to use some of the supporters' names in endorsements because of politics, and that's very surprising to me."

I'm not surprised.

That's the first lesson in politics.